African-Americans make up about two-thirds the population of Ferguson, Mo. but account for the vast majority of traffic stops, tickets and arrests, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

In its six-month civil rights probe the Justice Department found that the nearly all-white Ferguson Police Department routinely violated the constitutional rights (namely the First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments) of the city’s black residents.They were targeted them at disproportionately high rates and often without reasonable suspicion or probable cause. The scathing 100-page report, released Wednesday, charts the frequency of illegal policing tactics in Ferguson, which it suggests are largely driven by a toxic combination of systemic, systemic racial bias and pressure to generate revenue for the city through fines. These include an undue focus on minor infractions like “Failure to Comply” and “Manner of Walking on Roadway.”

From the report:

“Ferguson’s law enforcement practices are shaped by the City’s focus on revenue rather than by public safety needs. This emphasis on revenue has compromised the institutional character of Ferguson’s police department, contributing to a pattern of unconstitutional policing , and has also shaped its municipal court, leading to procedures that raise due process concerns and inflict unnecessary harm on members of the Ferguson community …

“Partly as a consequence of City and FPD priorities, many officers appear to see some residents, especially those who live in Ferguson’s predominantly African-American neighborhoods, less as constituents to be protected than as potential offenders and sources of revenue.”

Ferguson collected $2.6 million in court fines and fees last year, its second largest source of income — about 21 percent of its total budget.

The investigation was prompted by weeks of violent protests after the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black man shot in Ferguson last August by white police officer Darren Wilson. The event and subsequent protests garnered international attention and became a flash point for race and policing issues in America.

On Wednesday, the Justice Department also announced findings from a separate investigation clearing Wilson of any civil rights violations.

The larger police report outlines 26 recommendations for reforming Ferguson’s police department. They include prioritizing public safety over revenue and improving training and oversight. City officials will likely have to consent to making these changes or face being sued by the Justice Department on charges of violating the Constitution.

And although specific to Ferguson, the report has larger implications for many of the nation’s nearly 18,000 local police departments. Under Attorney General Eric Holder lead, the department has investigated more than 20 local police departments, issuing damaging findings against a handful of large cities including Newark; Albuquerque, N.M.; and Cleveland.

For more on how the Justice Department actually reforms a police department and how it began keeping tabs after the 1992 Los Angeles Riots:

On Thursday, the 42nd anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe vs. Wade decision to legalize abortion nationwide, House Republicans had intended to vote on a proposal banning abortions at the 20-week post-conception period. But rather than approving the so-called “fetal pain” measure, the House swapped it for a watered down bill that would weaken insurance coverage for the procedure. It was a last minute switch was made after a small group of mostly female Republican lawmakers came out strongly opposing the more restrictive measure.

All of which begs the question: what are current abortion laws?

Easier asked than answered.

Although Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark Supreme Court decision, established a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion, it did little to prevent individual states from enacting their own laws tightening restrictions on the procedure. So while all 50 states must permit some form of abortion, per the court’s ruling, many conservative states have enacted restrictions to making the procedure far more difficult.

In recent years, anti-abortion campaigns have increasingly geared their efforts towards passing restrictive abortion laws in individual states, rather than at the federal level. In 2013 alone, state legislatures enacted 70 laws restricting abortion access, ranging from bans on abortions at 20 weeks post-conception to limitations on insurance coverage for the procedure, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-choice advocacy group that tracks state laws. In fact, more abortions restrictions were enacted from 2011 to 2013 than in the entire previous decade.

The map below, created by designer Lewis Lehe, shows abortion rates by state as well as the dizzying patchwork of various state abortion restrictions (note that these are just some of the many state restrictions in place). Like the lattice-work of laws, the map is a bit complicated. Select a category tab on the right, and then mouse over each state to see its specific restrictions .The graph below the map shows te number of abortions in each state per 1,000 women (aged 15 – 44), To compare different states, click on one state and then mouse over (but don’t click) another. Hit the “Compare US Total” button to show the selected state against the national rate.

Note that the map was last updated in 2014. The ‘viability’ of a fetus is generally considered to start at 24 weeks. Normal pregnancies run about 40 weeks. Additionally, while some states have both parental notification and parental consent laws, the map shows only the strictest law.

(article continues below visualization)

Public opinion on the issue remains sharply divided. In a 2013 Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, 70 percent of respondents said they would not want the Supreme Court to completely overturn Roe v. Wade, as opposed to 24 percent who did. But 58 percent of respondents favored imposing some limits on abortion procedures.

Despite the controversy surrounding the procedure, abortion is still a relatively common experience for a significant number of American women, although the rate has decreased fairly steadily since its peak in 1980, when there were more than 29 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44. In 2011, there were fewer than 17 abortions for every 1,000 women, according to a recent Guttmacher study. That’s the lowest it’s been since 1973, when the Supreme Court legalized the procedure in all 50 states.

While the study doesn’t specifically investigate reasons for the decline, its authors note that the trend predates the recent wave in new state abortion restrictions. They largely attribute the drop to an uptick in the use of new, long-acting contraceptive methods that have significantly reduced the frequency of unwanted pregnancies.

]]>http://blogs.kqed.org/lowdown/2014/03/27/abortion/feed/2DoNowAbortionImage (2)A Half-Century After the March on Washington, Would King Be Satisfied?http://blogs.kqed.org/lowdown/2015/01/16/50-years-later-many-of-the-march-on-washingtons-goals-remain-elusive/
http://blogs.kqed.org/lowdown/2015/01/16/50-years-later-many-of-the-march-on-washingtons-goals-remain-elusive/#commentsFri, 16 Jan 2015 23:40:05 +0000http://blogs.kqed.org/lowdown/?p=9030

“What good is having the right to sit at a lunch counter if you can’t afford to buy a hamburger?”

In late August 1963, on the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, a quarter million demonstrators converged on the National Mall in the nation’s capital to partake in what would become one of the largest human rights demonstrations in United States history.

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom drew a majority African American presence. Demonstrators arrived by the busload — many from Southern states where Jim Crow segregation policies were still alive and well — to demand an improvement in civil and economic rights. They marched peacefully towards the Lincoln Memorial, where they listened to the impassioned speeches of some of most outspoken civil rights leaders of the day. Most famously, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his seminal “I Have a Dream” address.

King and other leaders of the march articulated a clear, carefully crafted set of demands, underscoring, as King stated, “the fierce urgency of now.”

The demands included the passage of new binding pieces of civil rights legislation that, among other things, guaranteed voting rights, increased political representation in Congress, eliminated school segregation, and imposed heavy financial and legal against agencies that violated the Equal Protection Clause.

But equally important in this list of demands, although often overshadowed, was the demand for greater economic equality. The movement’s leaders called for a federal jobs program and a nearly two-fold increase in the national minimum wage — to $2 an hour (equivalent to about $13 today). Leaders also urged federal enforcement to end employment discrimination, as well as policies and programs that would increase access to decent housing and adequate public accommodations.

“But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.”

The march and the Civil Rights Movement’s ongoing actions and advocacy were indisputably successful in prompting tremendous progress: less than a year later, congress passed the sweeping Civil Rights Act of 1964, and by 1965, the Voting Rights Act was signed into law as well. Today, 50 years hence, the results of these victories, and the subsequent gains in equality, are clearly evident, marked not the least by the election of America’s first black president, nearly unimaginable 50 years ago. Today, high school graduation rates among blacks have nearly quadrupled. Voter participation has also grown markedly, as has life expectancy.

On August 28, 2013, thousands gathered on the National Mall to commemorate the 1963 march and the tremendous impact it had. Some of the featured speakers, though, noted that many of the demands have still not been met, particularly along economic lines. Standing in the footsteps of King at the Lincoln Memorial, President Obama underscored this sentiment:

“In some ways, though, the securing of civil rights, voting rights, the eradication of legalized discrimination — the very significance of these victories may have obscured a second goal of the march, for the men and women who gathered 50 years ago were not there in search of some abstract idea. They were there seeking jobs as well as justice not just the absence of oppression but the presence of economic opportunity. For what does it profit a man, Dr. King would ask, to sit at an integrated lunch counter if he can’t afford the meal?”

Even as an increasing number of African Americans today have successfully risen the class ladder, attaining prominent positions in politics, business, and academia, huge economic gaps between blacks and whites still remain. The majority of black children today grow up in areas of concentrated poverty and attend segregated, often severely under-resourced schools. The unemployment rate among blacks is double that of whites, and more than a third of black adults with jobs work for poverty level wages, according to the Economic Policy Institute. (The infographic, at right — produced by EPI — illustrates some of the March’s “unfinished business”).

Meanwhile, the poverty rate among blacks is more than double that of whites, while average annual household income is almost $30,000 less, according to Pew Research. Blacks today are also disproportionately represented in the nation’s prison population: the rate of imprisonment among adult black males is more than six times that of white males, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Blacks are also victims of homicide at significantly higher rates than any other race.

The series of interactive charts below shows where certain, primarily economic gaps between whites and blacks have narrowed, widened, or remained pretty much the same. It is obviously not a comprehensive list.

Most of the data was collected by Pew Research, which offers a more detailed analysis of some of these figures, including relative rates for Hispanics and Asians where data are available.

Note: In 2012, there were roughly 41 million blacks living in the U.S., comprising about 13 percent of the U.S. population, according to the U.S. Census. Whites, meanwhile, numbered roughly 245 million, or almost about 78 percent of the population. Unless otherwise noted, the figures below include rates for total white and black populations (not just non-Hispanic).

Where gaps have narrowed

[Editor’s note: In an earlier version of this post, a chart showing the percent of adults currently married was mistakenly placed in the this section. It should have appeared under the section: “Where gaps have widened or stayed about the same.”]

Where gaps have widened or stayed about the same

One of the biggest indications of continued, and in some instances widening, economic inequality between blacks and whites is changing median net worth, with net worth defined as assets (stuff you own) minus debt (what you owe). In 1984, the median net worth of black households was less than 1/10th (9%) that of white households, according to Pew Research. But since then, the gap had widened even further (as it has between white and Hispanic households). By 2013, the net worth of white households had risen to 13 times that of black households.

]]>http://blogs.kqed.org/lowdown/2015/01/16/50-years-later-many-of-the-march-on-washingtons-goals-remain-elusive/feed/2CaptureMarchDemandsunfinished-march-ig-thumbnail.png.220Image1What’s the Fastest Way to Board A Plane? (hint: probably not how you’re doing it now)http://blogs.kqed.org/lowdown/2015/01/05/whats-the-fastest-way-to-board-a-plane-hint-probably-not-how-youre-used-to-doing-it/
http://blogs.kqed.org/lowdown/2015/01/05/whats-the-fastest-way-to-board-a-plane-hint-probably-not-how-youre-used-to-doing-it/#commentsTue, 06 Jan 2015 03:20:16 +0000http://blogs.kqed.org/lowdown/?p=15427

Rejoice! The holiday travel (and shopping) season has finally come to a close.

If you braved the friendly skies at some point in the last two weeks and found yourself a tad frustrated by the glacial pace of the boarding process, there’s a decent chance you’re not alone. It’s pretty easy to notice the obvious inefficiencies in the boarding methods of different commercial airlines.

So, what is the fastest way to board a plane? I mean, come on, we’re not exactly talking rocket science here. How hard can it be to figure out?

As it turns out, hard enough to intrigue an astrophysicist.

Courtesy of Vox.com

After waiting in a particularly long line to board a flight in Seattle, astrophysicist Jason Steffen began looking into the surprisingly complex mechanics of ushering people onto planes. In 2008 Steffen created a computer simulation to test different boarding methods, using a numerical technique to design what he claims is the best known option. His results were published several years ago in the Journal of Air Transport Management (and summarized on his site)

Steffen identified two major issues that can reduce the boarding process down to a painful crawl: 1. passengers often have to wait in the aisle for those ahead of them to stow luggage, and 2. the passengers already seated in aisle or middle seats have to get up and move back into the aisle to let those in line behind them take the seats closer to the window. In fact, the most standard boarding process — from back-to-front — is actually the slowest of them all, even less efficient than boarding a plane in completely random order.

Steffen claims that his proposed method, which minimizes the former issue and eliminates the latter, could save airlines of hundreds of millions of dollars a year by significantly reducing boarding times.

The news site Vox recently took up the question and created the above video analyzing various standard boarding methods. The videos below show simulations of these different boarding processes, listed from worst (slowest) to best (fastest).

5. The worst: back-to-front

4. The random method

3. Outside-in method

2. Best current method: the Southwest Airlines model

There’s no video simulation for this one, but the basic gist is that Southwest doesn’t assign seat. Instead, passengers get on the plane in the order they check in and can sit in whatever seats are available. It’s proven to be the fastest method currently in use because passengers have more freedom to sit where they want and spend less time waiting in the aisle.

1. And finally, the winner (theoretically at least): the Steffen method

Steffen’s method is closest to the the outside-in method, with one major difference: rather than having all window seat passengers board first, it creates a choreographed boarding sequence that eliminates any waiting in the aisle by having passengers board in a staggered format. Take a look:

In the sea that is breaking news, 2014 was a tsunami. A multitude of tumultuous events shook the world this year (sometimes literally). And although it’d be silly to attempt to quantify the “most important” stories, it is worth looking at the topics that American audiences were most drawn to and that seemed to have the greatest impact. As a gauge, these are the results from the Associated Press’ annual poll of U.S. editors and an independent survey of Twitter’s biggest news-related trending topics.

Associated Press’ nationwide news poll

In the Associated Press news agency’s annual poll, 85 editors and news directors at media outlets around country voted on the year’s top news stories. The overwhelming first pick was the police killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garder, and subsequent protests. In second place, the Ebola outbreak. The survey was conducted before news of the U.S. and Cuba re-establishing diplomatic relations, the Sony Pictures’ hack and the missing AirAsia plane. Click on the image to see AP’s interactive visualization.

Top 10 stories, by vote:

1. Police killings

2. Ebola outbreak

3. Islamic State

4. U.S. midterm elections

5. Obamacare

6. Malaysian Airlines plane mystery

7. U.S. immigration issues

8. Turmoil in the Ukraine

9. Gay marriage

10. Veterans Affairs scandal

Chatter on the Twittersphere: most tweeted stories

The right-leaning media firm Echelon Insights tracked news stories that generated the most buzz this year on the social media site Twitter. Focussing only on political topics (as opposed to other major events like the World Cup), the group published a week-by-week analysis of what Twitter users overall were tweeting about in 2014. They also followed the tweeting trends of political insiders as well as conservative and liberal activists.

A Missouri grand jury’s decision on Monday to not charge a white police officer in the August shooting death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teen, sparked angry protests in cities around the country.

The incident, which happened last August in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, was followed by weeks of protests and rioting, drawing national attention to the issue of police force, particularly in low-income communities of color, where arrest rates are often disproportionately high and relations between law enforcement and residents are frequently tense and mistrustful. It also underscored the importance of understanding your rights if stopped by the police, and knowing how to act appropriately during these interactions to help avoid potentially dangerous confrontations. Cartoon journalist Andy Warner explains the rules of engagement (source links below).

Remember when U.S. immigration reform seemed like it was finally in the cards?

That was so 2013.

The brief burst of fanfare following passage of the Senate’s comprehensive bill last year faded quickly when the debate hit the bitterly divided House, where prospects for getting anything done have now been all but extinguished.

And that means starting over from square one. Again.

But now that the Republicans have won control of the Senate, the issue may soon resurface, with a stronger possibility of a bill making it through both chambers of Congress.

That comes on the heels of this summer’s immigration crisis, when thousands of unaccompanied child migrants were detained at the U.S.-Mexico border. The events underscored the urgent need to address America’s outdated immigration laws and figure out some updated plan of action for dealing with the more than 11 million undocumented people who already live here.

This interactive, produced for The Lowdown by Newsbound, explains what comprehensive reform actually means, why it hasn’t happened yet and how we got here to begin with.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, propositions are an entrenched part of California’s political system. In nearly every statewide election, voters wade through a slurry of local and statewide ballot measures, part of a system intended to expand direct democracy. Some are really complicated, some are controversial, and some are just kind of weird (like when voters passed Prop 6 in 1998, making it a felony for anyone to use a horse for meat — including a pony, donkey or mule, or this year’s failed effort to get a measure on the ballot to split California into six states). In next week’s midterm election, Californians will decide on six statewide propositions, in addition to a likely host of county and local measures.

So how do propositions actually make it onto the ballot? What are the different types? And what exactly is a referendum anyway? Comic journalist Andy Warner demystifies the Golden State’s century-old process.

The upcoming midterms marks the first major nationwide election since the Supreme Court struck down a key piece of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act. The 2013 decision had an immediate impact, giving a handful of primarily southern states the green light to change their voting rules without first getting approval from the federal government.

And change they have. In the run-up to November 4, there have been a flurry of of lawsuits challenging new voting rules that opponents claim unfairly discriminate against minority voters. Comic journalist Andy Warner explains, in three illustrated parts, the history of the Voting Rights Act, what the Supreme Court’s recent decision did and what the state of voting looks like today. Click on the images below to view as a slideshow, or read the comics in their entirety.